


Identity Check

by Chibiness87



Series: Knowing me, Knowing you [1]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Episode Related, Episode: s06e04 Dreamland, F/M, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-05-05
Packaged: 2019-05-02 13:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14545710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chibiness87/pseuds/Chibiness87
Summary: They really should have come up with a code by now for situations like this.





	Identity Check

**Identity check** , by **chibiness87**  
(Part 1 of knowing me, knowing you)  
**Rating** : T  
**Spoilers/Season** : Up to Dreamland I  
**Disclaimer** : Not mine

 **Summary** : They really should have come up with a code by now for situations like this.

* * *

 

He’s standing in front of his partner in a body that isn't his own, and not for the first time he’s wondering why the hell they haven’t come up with a code by now for situations just like this.

Well, ok, maybe not exactly like this, but close enough for a question to arise.

Especially after the whole Modell/Bowman mess, where for a moment he was convinced the person he had his gun trained on was the reason he had just watched his partner/friend/woman-he’s-not-so-secretly-in-love-with kill herself.

They never were good at learning from mistakes.

Maybe they’re a little bit insane after all.

They rely so much on what they don’t say, that now that he’s looking at her with eyes that aren’t his own, and in a voice he doesn’t recognise, well. He can’t blame her for being sceptical about this. She wouldn’t be Scully if she wasn’t. So he does what she did for him, pleased that at least this time there’s no gun aimed at anyone’s head.

He adds in to his little speech that Bill hates him, hoping this little titbit will add to his credibility, but still feeling just like the sorry sonofabitch he was in that hospital corridor, still feeling inadequate.

All he gets in response to these simple facts is a raised eyebrow, and he feels a shot of relief that, even in this body, he can still read her like he has been able to do for so long now. _Really? That’s the best you can do?_

It’s not. Of course it’s not. Because they have been partners for over 5 years, and even the return of Diana hasn’t changed the fact that she is his one in 5 billion. He went to Antarctica on his own dime to save her, on nothing more than a hope and a prayer that he wasn’t being set up for the biggest downfall of his life. He already knew he couldn’t live without her, and if she doesn’t believe him now there is a good chance he might end up having to do just that, and the thought alone is enough to terrify him.

He thinks back to his most recent hospital stay, the words that have been strangling him for years breaking free in a moment of weakness brought on by the drugs they gave him. But even though the drugs were the catalyst, it didn’t mean he didn’t mean them. Continues to mean them. Three little words that are a truth he never thought he’d get a chance to say, the memory of her-but-not-really-her mouth on his giving him the strength, the courage to say them out loud. Because, before the fist to his face which made him see stars, _she had kissed him back_.

But there, in the hospital room, she had done nothing more than rolled her eyes at him, and he has yet to pluck up the guts to tell her again, stone cold sober this time. If he does so now in this body it’ll feel like cheating, and she’ll never trust another thing he says to her. And he needs her. Needs her like oxygen, but right now he needs her to believe him to help sort this whole mess out.

So instead of a confession of love comes the next best thing. Proof that he pays attention, that he notices her. The little fact about the bee pollen in her yogurt, because after everything they have seen over the summer that she doesn’t balk at the mere word bee shows more about her strength than anything else. He himself has developed a huge dislike of the buzzing creatures, bordering on phobia.

But still, she doesn’t trust him, claiming anyone could have been able to tell her that, like anyone gives a crap about noticing her enough to pick up on the bee pollen kick she’s on, and he wants to laugh. Normally, her stance of demanding proof is just what he needs to keep pushing the boundaries they come across. He wasn’t lying to her in his hallway when he told her the scientific stance she takes has pulled his ass out of the fire more times than he can possible count. He needs her to do that again, now more than ever.

 _Take a leap of faith_ , he wants to ask her, _have the strength of my beliefs, just this once more_.

So he does the one thing that he knows will keep her on side. He offers her proof.

He’s too in love with her to back away now.

“Do you ever want to stop? Get out of the car?” she had asked him on the way out here, and he had all but fobbed her off, not quite sure what to say.

He knows the answer to that question now. _Yes. But only if you’re there with me._

He hopes he’ll get the chance to tell her.


End file.
